__NOTOC__ Hot Springs (traditional name: Kyam) is a campsite and the location of an Indian border outpost in the

Chang Chenmo River Chang Chenmo River or Changchenmo River is a tributary of the Shyok River, part of the Indus River system. It is at the southern edge of the disputed Aksai Chin region and north of the Pangong Lake basin. The source of Chang Chenmo is near th ...

valley in

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory which constitutes a part of the larger Kashmir region and has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since 1947. (subscription required) Quote: "Jammu and ...

near the disputed border with

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. It is so named because there is a

hot spring A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...

at this location. The Line of Actual Control near Kongka Pass is only to the east.

Name

Historically, the name for the hot spring was ''Kyam'' (''Kiam'', ''Kayam''). The Chinese still refer to it by this name.

Geography

Changchenmo-Valley-map-Survey-of-India-1916

Geologist Frederic Drew states that the Chang Chenmo river flows on a barren gravel bed, with occasional

alluvial Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...

patches where vegetation is found. Hot Springs is one such location. In the vicinity are also other such patches, named Pamzal,

Tsogtsalu __NOTOC__ Tsogtsalu or Tsolu is a pasture and campsite in the Ladakh union territory of India, in the Chang Chenmo Valley close India's border with China. It is located at the confluence of the Rimdi Chu river that flows down from Marsemik La ...

(or ''Tsolu'') and Gogra. They were historical halting places for travellers and trading caravans, with a supply of water, fuel and fodder. Nomadic Ladakhi graziers also used them for grazing cattle. A large tributary called Kugrang joins the Chang Chenmo River near Hot Springs. Gogra is in the valley of the Kugrang River, northwest of Hot Springs. The

Changlung River __NOTOC__ Gogra (also referred to as Nala Junction) is a pasture and campsite in the Ladakh union territory of India, near its disputed border with China. It is located in the Kugrang River valley, a branch valley of Chang Chenmo Valley, wher ...

flows in from the northeast to join Kugrang at this location. According to the ''Gazetteer of Kashmir and Ladak'', there are "celebrated" hot springs at Kyam, which were visited by the Ladakhis of the Pangong district and the Tibetans of the

Rudok Rudok, also spelt Rutok and Rutog, more properly Rudok Dzong (), is a town that served as the historical capital of the Rudok area in Western Tibet on the frontier with Ladakh. In the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, it is described as being "pict ...

district. The water had a temperature of in August and was suffused with soda and sulphur. The local people believed that it was beneficial for ailments like rheumatism. The springs are believed to arise from the geological fault represented by the Changchenmo Valley, which separates the Paleozoic, Triassic and Jurassic rocks of the Karakoram range to the north from the older Paleozoic rocks to the south.

History

In the late 1800s, the Maharaja Ranbir Singh at the request of the British made improvements to the trails and facilities of the Gogra campsite in order to improve trade with Yarkand. The valley was also a popular hunting spot for British officers on leave. In Autumn 1959, the

Kongka Pass incident The Kongka Pass or Kongka La () is a low mountain pass on the Line of Actual Control between India and China in eastern Ladakh. It lies on a spur of the Karakoram range that intrudes into the Chang Chenmo Valley adjacent to the disputed Aksai ...

occurred near here. At the time, the

Central Reserve Police Force The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) is a federal police organisation in India under the authority of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) of the Government of India. It is one among the Central Armed Police Forces. The CRPF's primary role li ...

(CRPF) personnel were given the mandate of constructing this camp. During the construction, the scouting team was captured by the

PLA PLA may refer to: Organizations Politics and military * People's Liberation Army, the armed forces of China and of the ruling Chinese Communist Party * People's Liberation Army (disambiguation) ** Irish National Liberation Army, formerly called ...

who had advanced to Kongka Pass since the previous years. On 21 October, the search team tasked to find the missing scouts encountered the Chinese and were caught in a firefight. That led to the death of 9 members during the firefight and 1 member later due to his injuries. They have been since honored as martyrs by the law enforcement in India annually on this day. In the 1960s, a Police Memorial was erected here at Hot Springs.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* {{citation , title=Gazetteer of Kashmir and Ladak , url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.43256/page/n7 , publisher=Superintendent of Government Printing , location=Calcutta , year=1890 , ref={{sfnref, Gazetteer of Kashmir and Ladak, 1890

External links

Remembering supreme sacrifice of martyrs of CRPF on this day at Hot springs, Ladakh in 1959
- ITBP Twitter Chang Chenmo Valley